There is a demand that a plurality of bundles of originals are printed in different duplicating (copying) conditions and handled as one job. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-134798 discloses an image processing apparatus which has a build job mode capable of satisfying such demand. The build job mode (an original bundle-based processing mode) enables a first bundle of originals to be copied in a black and white mode, a second bundle of originals to be copied in a color mode, and the both to be bound together to be finished as one printed document. Such processing is able to reduce the cost of copying than a case where all bundles of originals are printed in color. Moreover, it is able to eliminate user's labor of printing each in different image forming conditions and binding the finished printed document together by hand.
On the other hand, conventionally, some image forming apparatuses, such as multi-functional peripherals, include a function of displaying image data as a preview on a display portion before copying or printing thereof is executed. With the preview, a user is able to confirm a print status in advance, thus a wrong setting is possible to be reset before printing is performed and, therefore, it is possible to eliminate waste of resources, and labor of redoing.
Note that, conventionally, there is proposed an electronic filing system which manages an electronic document as image data read by a scanner or the like. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-275836 discloses a technology to display in line thumbnails which are reduced top pages of each file in a display portion in such an electronic filing system. Compared to a method for displaying a filing list consisting of file names, such thumbnail display improves recognizability of file contents and allows a user to easily select a file.
The preview function above is, however, to view a print status of scanned originals from the beginning in order and to confirm only the first and last image data by depressing a button set to view the first or the last.
Furthermore, although the original bundle-based as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-134798 offers the above-mentioned convenience, all setting about a plurality of bundles of originals are required to be correct so as to obtain a satisfactory printed document, and even one failure requires an entire redoing, as a result, resources are wasted and it takes much time for redoing. Accordingly, in the original bundle-based processing mode, a method enabling easy confirmation of setting and change of setting is desired.
In the original bundle-based processing mode, a user may confirm that the setting is correct and start printing only by viewing all top images of each bundle of originals, but even when the preview function above is applied to an image forming apparatus with the original bundle-based processing mode mounted, setting confirmation may not be so easy in such a way. That is, when a user desires to view a preview of a bundle of originals in the middle, viewing preview pages sequentially thereto is required and, after viewing images sequentially from the beginning and confirming the bundle of originals to switch to the next, confirmation that the setting is correct is possible. Accordingly, a preview display method enabling an easy confirmation of setting in the original bundle-based processing mode is desired.
Furthermore, the technology to arrange thumbnail images which are reduced top pages in a file, as described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-275836, is only used for selecting the file. Actually, since subjobs of each bundle of originals are collected and handled as one job, and image data of all bundles of originals (image data of each subjob) are collected and handled as one file in the original bundle-based processing mode, even when the technology as described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-275836 is applied to the preview display means, only a thumbnail image of the very first page in the file (that is a top page of the first bundle of originals) is displayed and top pages of other bundles of originals are not arranged and displayed.
Furthermore, the preview function above is able to be reset only when a preview image being displayed does not correspond to a user's need, and when the preview function is applied in the original bundle-based processing mode, in which print conditions are set for each bundle of originals respectively (that is, there are a plurality of print conditions), and resetting is executed, the print conditions for all bundles of originals is reset.
In this way, in the original bundle-based processing mode, a setting change of print conditions of a bundle of originals, print conditions of which is desired to change is required. In contrast only applying the conventional preview display method results in a change of all the setting (common settings in all the bundles of originals, that is the overall print conditions) when displaying a preview. In this way, a method for resetting effectively in the original bundle-based processing mode is also desired.